ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE LIQUIDS: PRINTER INK If you were to go shopping for a new printer, whether you look in store or online, one thing you may soon realise is that many printers are much cheaper than you would imagine them to be. While many can cost upwards of £200, it isn’t hard to find some for much less than £100, especially one for basic home use while still being able to print in colour. However, this is a trend you will only ever notice with inkjet printers, not laser printers. But why is this?
It’s no secret than printer ink (a complementary good to inkjet printers) can be costly, with prices around £15 at their lowest. At this price point, you are most likely purchasing a single cartridge of black ink. Coloured ink is often more expensive (hence why many people prefer to print in black and white when possible) and companies also like to upsell people by selling them more ink at once, whether by providing larger cartridges or multiple ones (sometimes of multiple colours). The high price point of this complementary good is what allows printers to be so cheap. Companies like HP and Canon will sell inkjet printers at a loss but will soon recuperate these costs with overpriced ink. While ink cartridges may cost consumers anywhere from £15 to £45 for a single cartridge, it only ever costs printer companies less than £5 per cartridge (often this is much less, closer to <£1) However, companies like to make sure they get their money back and have a multitude of methods to ensure that customers keep purchasing their ink. While every printer and printer company works differently, often times the same methods are used between them. These methods range from ensuring only the companies own brand ink is used to completely disallowing printing when a single cartridge is low no matter the colour or printing settings used to using small amounts of coloured ink when printing in black and white. All of these methods ensure that consumers will not only keep buying the expensive ink (instead of any cheaper alternatives) but will also have to go and buy ink more often. While some methods of making consumers buy the ink can be justified (such as requiring the ink that will be used in the printer to be available) others can not. This is often times why laser printers are the more expensive option. While laser printers and their toner cartridges are much more expensive than inkjet printers, the running cost of an inkjet printer is more than a laser printer, as you will go through ink cartridges much faster than toner cartridges.
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